I'll always remember 2008 not just for the political and economic drama, but also for all of the innovations in consumer technology that affected me.
In particular, this was the year the iPhone and its library of mobile applications became an integral part of my daily routine. The iPhone's ever-growing app catalog has been a great source of utility and entertainment for me as an end user; it's also fascinating to consider these apps from an experience design perspective too.
On that note, here's an informal list of ten favorite iPhone apps from 2008, as well as a short wish list for apps in 2009. With favorites from me and a few other Organics (thanks Casey, Lisa, Marta and Tracy), this is by no means definitive but might prove helpful or fun for you or an iPhone user you know.
10. Chanel. One of the first brands with an iPhone presence, this app presents RSS-driven couture content in an extremely clean, typography-driven design befitting the luxury brand. Although content updates can take some time, the video and photos are extremely high quality and worth the wait.
9. Twitterific. Like several other apps on this list, some online services are simply more relevant on mobile devices. Keeping track of others' tweets couldn't be easier (e.g., swiping the screen to scroll through a long list) and posting is fast as long as you have a network connection. The occasional ad placement is not too obtrusive.
8. Super Monkey Ball. This was a 'day 1' purchase for me and was the first game that my nieces and nephews gravitated to when they got permission to handle the iPhone over the holidays. It's is an excellent way to demonstrate how the accelerometer works and the pretty level designs are extremely creative (shades of Super Mario Galaxy?) but really challenging - unfortunately I haven't gotten past level 8!
7. Yelp. It's really difficult to resist checking a restaurant or venue's Yelp review if I'm already there on location. Large numbers of reviews for most places help to create a quickly scannable narrative, however IMHO a lot of people seem to post extremely positively or negatively in Yelp. I still get a good relative baseline from which I can judge my own experience. This app's search and results UI is really nicely designed too.
6. PageOnce. This app works best if you have automated payments set up for all your recurring bills, and are okay with setting up a PageOnce account that accesses those other accounts' status data. I did just this in 2008 and now pop open the app to check my BofA, NetFlix, PG&E, ATT and other accounts' status. You can't do anything with those accounts, but having all that info consolidated in one place is a relief and lets me concentrate on other important things.
5. Koi Pond. One of the most popular downloads in the app store, Koi Pond is an 'arty' entertainment app that features a realistic overhead view of big koi swimming in random patterns. The water ripple effects and koi reactions to your touch are both subtle and natural. You can change some sounds, leaf positions, etc. - not too many ways to play but the simple design is perfect. Great 'app candy' for social situations.
4. Shazam. This well-named app produces more 'wow' moments per use than any other app I've seen. Great for music lovers who find themselves wanting to capture the theme track of a given moment, this app matches any audible music to the track name with a very high degree of accuracy. I've been able to pull track names in loud places (overhead music on a Virgin America plane) and for obscure artists (Bola Sete). Shazam provides iTunes and Youtube links for purchase or video viewing - tools like this could have a big effect on the music industry someday.
3. Pandora. Ah Pandora, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: One -Exploring new music and accessing your favorite artists on-demand is even easier on the iPhone than online. Two - The iPhone UI looks great and playback is excellent with a network connection (especially WiFi). Three - Pandora+iPhone together make a great auto-DJ utility for creating instant soundtracks, anywhere. I hope these guys make it as a business and continue to improve the service and app.
2. Google Maps. Pre-installed on the iPhone, this app's GPS tracking and turn-by-turn direction features have helped me many, many times this year. Moving the maps around through touch commands is very fast and easy as is switching between Search and Directions modes. When in the car, I recommend giving your iPhone to the non-driving "navigator" -- this app is very helpful there but too distracting to handle when driving. One note: Watching yourself move around as the blue dot can be pretty addicting!
1. Facebook. The social networking service translates really well to the iPhone - all of your feeds, requests, friend profiles and even Facebook chat are included and updated frequently. The app also does a great job optimizing and displaying photos - you can share photos while on vacation and get instant feedback. Facebook's app UI is also nicely done and on-brand, with a good balance struck between legible typography and presenting/organizing a lot of information. This app got better after a 2.0 release and we're looking forward to it getting even better in 2009!
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)
We love these apps too:
AIM,
Amazon.com, Aqua Forest, Bank of America, Characters, Chest, FSS Air
Hockey, Google Earth, Labrynth, Light, MySpace, NPR Mobile, Obama 08,
Ocarina, PanoLab, Quip, Remote, Showtimes, Spore: Origins, Tap Tap
Revenge, Target Snowglobe, Tris, Urban Spoon, WebMD, Where To
Wish List Apps for 2009 (with most wished for last):
As long as I don't break it, I'm going to be using my iPhone a lot this year. Here are a few iPhone apps I'd like to see in 2009:
4. Organic Three Minds/Organism. It
would be great to see Organic's content and social networking tools
available on mobile platforms -- if not as downloadable apps, perhaps
as sites designed for mobile browsers? 'Nuff said. ;)
3. Upcoming.org. I'm not sure why, but Yahoo doesn't seem to have fielded any apps for the iPhone platform yet (not even Messenger). If and when they do, I hope that this social networking+calendar tool is the first to make the jump.
2. Qik. The iPhone 3G didn't feature integrated video, but the team at Qik (www.qik.com) came up with a workaround that lets users stream video in real time to the website. There
may be a number of reasons for this not to become an official app (a
future iPhone could include this feature, network usage could be high
in aggregate) but expect it to be very popular if ever released through
the app store. Qik is actually available for
many other mobile device factors, we'll see if Apple lets the growing
iPhone user base get this tool on a free or paid basis.
1. Hulu. In
case you haven't used it yet, Hulu is a joint venture by FOX/NBC that
features free episodes and clips from a wide variety of TV series and
movies. For people that aren't using Tivo or
don't have good reception/cable, Hulu is a good indicator (along with
Netflix streaming, iTunes downloads, etc) of where media distribution
and viewing is heading in 2009. I would love to be able to watch "Battlestar Galactica" or "The Office" on my iPhone. There are a couple of challenges to this app being available: getting
the carrier to allow high quality, long form video content to stream
across their wireless network and use up bandwidth, and also balancing
the free streaming model vs. rented or purchased digital downloads in
iTunes and other storefronts. I have a feeling that somewhere, lawyers and engineers are already hard at work on these issues.
Conclusion
If
you have another favorite app from 2008 or want to comment on any we
listed or are wishing for, please post here. Who knows what 2009 holds
in store?
Jay Bain
in
apps, going mobile, tech talk
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Comments (3)
Rolando is ten times the game the Super Monkey Ball is. It's really the first iPhone game that feels native to the platform: it gets gesture, scale, and pacing down perfectly for *this* device, and doesn't feel like an idea ported from somewhere else.
Mint.com's done a good job in the first release of their iphone app. They were clearly very careful in selecting the subset of features from the web application that would be relevant in a mobile app.
And Tweetie's at least as good as Twitteriffic, but Twitter apps are about 99% personal preference and 1% actual functionality differences. :-)
And Hulu? You'll never see that on the iPhone, silly! Remember that little thing called iTunes? Where they sell videos?
Posted on January 1, 2009 15:57
That's a good list. I'd have to say that Tweetie is the best Twitter app for the iPhone, though. I'd also add Brightkite to that list as well. The UI is excellent.
Posted on January 2, 2009 12:05
Gotta add a shameless plug for the BlueHaze Concerts App.
From TechCrunch Sep.'08: "I like the prospect of being able to share a photo with everyone at the concert (perhaps of a bandmember backstage, or an especially good shot of the guitarist rocking out). This feature won’t be appealing until the application becomes widespread, but the company says it has already seen over 40,000 downloads since its softlaunch."
http://bluehaze.com/iphone
Posted on January 5, 2009 07:28